Joseph

"I was visiting New York when the earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010. My wife and son were in Haiti. Our home was destroyed and my son was badly hurt. They are both still in Haiti and I have only seen my wife once since 2010. I have not seen my son since before the earthquake. I applied for TPS as soon as it was enacted and have renewed every year since. I currently work as a parking attendant, but I am only able to work part-time. I have kidney disease and I am on dialysis 3 times a week. This limits that number of hours I can work and I qualify for Medicaid. Because I only have Medicaid, I have not been able to get on the kidney transplant list, so I must continue with dialysis. If I lost TPS and Medicaid, I do not know what I would do. I am a law-abiding man and I would not want to stay in the U.S. if I didn’t have lawful status. But I know I could never get the treatment I need in Haiti. If I lose my health insurance, I could lose my life."